Severed Connections
by snheetah
Summary: An estranged man visits Fair City for one purpose. Would he be able to maintain a strong relationship or would it be severed in the end?
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

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Holding a briefcase firmly in his grip, he watched as the buildings of the city passed by through the window of the bus. It was strange being in a town where its citizens were a bit too social than from what he had been used to. Then again, traveling on business trips always introduced him to new people and new opportunities and ones that he would always take advantage of. However, having too many opportunities barely gave him enough time to himself to at least enjoy the places where he travelled and the people that he had met. There was no other obstacle that stood in his way when it came to his job. He was not married and he didn't have a child to look after though that was something that he deeply regretted. There had been a woman in his life before but sadly she had decided to leave him and thinking about that, he really didn't blame her for doing so. If he had been in her place, he would leave himself too after what he had done.

Now he hoped that things would be different, but who knew what was going to happen. It had been years since he had last seen her and a lot could have happened during those number of years. The bus suddenly came to a halt at a bus stop as passengers got off and others came on. It would be only just a couple of minutes until he reached the DA office to pay just a little visit...and perhaps get thrown out. But it was a risk that he was willing to take.

After a while the bus came to a stop once more and he got off. He stood right in front of the door of the DA building and took a deep breath. Who knew that he would feel intimidated by such a building when he had plenty of experience with being a businessman. He tugged onto the collar of his shirt and tried to proceed to walk into the building but he felt like his feet were glued to the ground.

_Ugh__ why am I so nervous? It's just a simple meeting, what's the worse that she can do?_ he thought to himself before swallowing.

"Hello?" a voice behind him said and he whipped around to come face to face with a woman who was just proceeding to enter inside the building. "Are you looking for one of Fair City's great attorneys?" There was a cherry tone in her voice, almost too cherry in his point of view, but whatever helped to get through the work week.

_Yes actually _he wanted to say but the words were nowhere to be found. "No thank you madam," he answered her with a courteous nod of his head followed by a smile. "But when I do find myself in a tad of trouble I know which building to go to."

He quickly walked away from the woman and the building before heading deeper into town. Though it wasn't long until a scream caught his attention and right then and there was a crowd gathered around a strange man with a strange contraption. He took note of what this man was wearing and why he looked so much a like rodent than a human. "What in heavens is this place?" he said to no one in particular.

"Welcome to Fair City!" one of the residents welcomed him before he reverted back to screaming once again.

A maniacal laughter escaped the rodent man's lips as he zapped his contraption towards a building a turned it into cheese. It was a mesmerizing sight, for he himself also worked with technology but not the type that would transform anything into cheese.

"Blimey..." he whispered once more, adjusting his glasses just to make sure that he wasn't just dreaming about this whole situation that took place in front of him.

As if this day couldn't get any stranger, a streak of yellow light flew through the sky and straight towards the mad scientist. "Stop right there Dr. Two-Brains!" That streak of light took form of a young girl in a red costume who hovered in the sky.

"WordGirl!" the scientist, known as Dr. Two-Brains, exclaimed as he adjusted the ray towards her. "Have a taste of some cheese!" he said and zapped her with the ray, though this superhero was fast and dodged out of the way.

The crowd that had been screaming in fear earlier had transformed into cheering for this super heroine. This was something that seemed to be out of an action movie for this plucky super heroine was quick as lighting and was able to take out this mad scientist in less than a minute. "WordGirl! WordGirl! WordGirl!" the city chanted her name as the super heroine gave them a salute and a smile before taking off into the skies.

_Interesting _he thought. Looks like this town was well protected by a superhero, and a very young one at that. The crowd dispersed as the police took Dr. Two-Brains into their vehicle and drove away, whilst he continued on his journey. Who knew what other villains this city had and he didn't know how alert he ought to be? He had already come in contact with one, who had proven himself to be a genius but who knew how the others were!

He continued down his walk until he came face to face with a house. Turning his head, he saw the last name _McCallister _written on the mailbox. The moment that he had been waiting for was a moment that he didn't want to face at the moment...but he knew that he had to. At least he could try and put his mind to rest about all the past that they had shared. What's the worst that could happen?

Taking a deep breath, he raised his fist and knocked on the door. There was a moment of silence before he heard some footsteps running towards the door. "Mother you're back so-" a voice said as the door opened at the same time.

That voice was something that he had not been expecting. His eyes widened as he looked down at the young boy before him. It was like he was staring at a miniature reflection of himself for they shared the same blond hair color, the same accent, and a resemblance.

The young boy before him stared in shock of the fact that he was staring at a stranger before him and someone that seemed to be an older version of himself. "Who are you?" he asked the stranger before him.

Well, this was quite the awkward situation for the man but there was something that he could feel. A slight connection with this young man. He knelt down eye level to the child and a small smile came to his lips. "I have actually come to see your mother," he said to him, "but I did not expect to see you."

The young boy frowned and gave him a nod of his head. What could he possibly want with his mother? In fact, no man had ever shown up to their house asking for her before. "And what business do you have with mother?" the boy asked him.

"It's a long and old business actually," the man responded to him. "Do you know what she will be back?"

"She works long hours," the young boy responded, "is there anything else?"

He could try and ask more questions but he didn't want to make this boy uncomfortable, though he just couldn't leave with this feeling that was gnawing at him. "Would your mother by any chance be Claire McCallister?" he asked causing the young boy to blink. _Oh Theodore you did it now_! he mentally yelled, wishing that he could take back what he had just said.

"Yes," the young boy slowly dragged out the word.

"And your name is?" the man asked.

Now what business could he want in giving this man his full name. He was a stranger! However, this young boy had a reputation in the city of building his infamous robots and causing mischief about the city. "You will learn soon enough," he said to him with a mischievous smile upon his lips.

_What does that mean_? the man thought as if this kid was speaking in riddles. "I only have some limited time here," he said to the child, "perhaps you can leave a message to your mother from me?"

Unamused with his question, the child rolled his eyes and allowed the man to proceed with what message he wanted to leave. "What is it?" he asked him.

"Tell her that Theodore McCallister II is at Fair City and I would like to see her again," the man told him. He could tell that the moment he said that, something flashed within the child's eyes and that was more than evidence to him on what this child was going to say next.

"What?" the child immediately responded as he blinked at the man. "The...Second?" His mouth was agape as he stared at the man before him. No wonder why they resembled one another. "F-Father?"

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**Something new that I wanted to experiment with. Let's see how it goes! Thank you for the reviews!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Indeed. There it was. That one word that this man had been deprived of ever since Claire McCallister had chosen to leave him with their son. It had been eight years ago when she did so, when their son was only two, but Theodore had never given it a second thought when his ex-wife had gathered her belongings and left him. During that time, Theodore had never given it any thought of running after Claire. He just let her go as if those eight years had been nothing to one another. He continued to watch the young boy in front of him, who continued to stare at him as if he was just an entity to him than a human being.

_Please say something _Theodore mentally pleaded to the child before him but he only continued to stare in silence. He couldn't tell what other emotions were going through him or whatever Claire had said to their son about him. "Indeed...Theodore," he finally spoke to him with a nod of his head, "I am...your father." Taking a deep breath, the man tried to keep his emotions at bay.

The child blinked at being called his full name. The only times when he would hear it was when he would get into trouble. "Actually," the child mustered his courage to speak to this man who was supposedly his father, "I am formally known as 'Tobey.'"

_Oh_? Theodore thought upon hearing that. Never before had he heard his ex-wife call their child 'Tobey' before but in any case, it seemed like a very endearing nickname...and one that fit him so perfectly.

"That's an interesting name. Tobey," he echoed his son's name, giving it a try before smiling in approval. "Whilst I have no nickname, I formally go by Theo. Saves a couple of seconds from saying a full name." Theodore was a man that said a joke every now and then but not many chuckles followed afterwards.

Tobey only stared at this man before him at the attempt of such a joke. It wasn't because he didn't get it, even though it wasn't that good of a joke, but he didn't want to give this stranger any satisfaction and have him thinking that Tobey immediately trusted him. He felt that this whole situation would have been a lot better if his mother had been here. She had known this man more than he did and she would probably know what to do. As for Tobey, he was hesitant to let this man inside the house which would have been the most hospitable thing to do.

Taking Tobey's silence as an answer Theodore could tell that he had stayed more than he should have on their property. There was an urge within him that he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his son before he left once more, but it was going to take more than just a simple visitation. It was going to take a lot of time and it was time that he didn't have. "Well Tobey I better get going," he said as he stood up in straight position and looked down at Tobey, "but I would like to see you again later...if you would like to that is."

_If I would like to_? Tobey thought. In fact, Tobey didn't know what he liked about this whole situation. It was just too much information that been unexpectedly thrown at him and he didn't know how to react to it all. He wanted to say something like _that remains to be seen _but that wasn't necessary, let alone polite to say to a stranger who claimed to be his father. "I would have to talk to mother about this," Tobey finally answered. It was the proper thing to do, though he also hoped that she would comply to meeting with this man.

"Of course," Theodore answered with a nod of his head, "until then Tobey." Clutching tightly onto his briefcase and giving his son another smile, Theodore turned on his heel and began to walk off the property.

Tobey blinked as his hand tightened around the doorknob and watched this man walk away. A part of him wanted to run after this man and learn more about him...and try to catch up with the father that he had never got to know, but a part of him needed to trust this man in order for that to work. He was about to shut the door but hesitated to do so. The atmosphere in the house after such a revelation made him feel like he was being suffocated and he needed some fresh air. Something to distract his mind from what he had just learned and the only place that was willing to do that was the library.

A quiet place where he could gather his thoughts and distract himself from what he had just learned. He shut the door behind him and walked down the pavement of the sidewalk, being careful not to step on the cracks. With each step that he took, he thought of the small conversation that he just had with this Theodore man but he couldn't even reach to a conclusion about it. There was just so much that he didn't know about him! He didn't know where he had lived all this time, what he liked, what he disliked. He didn't even know if Theodore would even like him for who he was, a boy genius with his love for building robots and causing destruction throughout the city. He let out a sigh when he finally reached the library and entered inside.

At least the atmosphere in the library was a bit better than being home. No tension, no problems, and no revelations that had been told to him. He walked over to the most preferred section of the library and took out a handful of books on robots and engineering. He felt that he knew the majority of the subjects that were listed in these books but he knew that there was always something new that needed to be learned.

_Robots Engineering Chapter 1: Knowing your Tools_

_Already know that_ Tobey thought with a roll of his eyes but continued to read the chapter anyway.

A good few minutes passed by when he heard a familiar voice from the table where he was sitting in. Looking up he saw two of his classmates, none other than the two best friends Becky Botsford and Violet Heaslip, whispering to one another. "Ugh," Tobey groaned as he looked at the two girls, "do you two mind, I'm trying to read!"

Both girl immediately halted as they turned their heads and looked at Tobey. Becky sent a glare towards Tobey whilst Violet looked at him apologetically. "Sorry Tobey," she whispered, "we didn't mean to interrupt you."

"You just did," Tobey replied back as he picked up his book and tried to distract himself once more, "now if you two would be so kind whisper elsewhere." He waved his hand towards them in the air as if they were nothing but pests to him.

"I'm sorry," Violet apologized once more, "I was only trying to show Becky that new book series that has come out. I heard it is more popular than the _Princess Triana _series."

"Really?" Becky asked her friend with wide eyes, now all the more interested to hear more about this new series.

Tobey clenched tightly onto book as he tried to concentrate on the words written on the page, though how could he do so when there was noise in the library. "What did I just say?" he snapped. "Take your annoying presence to a different section of the library. May I suggest the Art Department? You could use more skills."

Violet slightly flinched at the words that were thrown at her. She had never cared about what others had said to her but to have her abilities, which she had worked so hard to achieve, be spoken about in a condescending manner made her feel crestfallen. She turned around and looked at Becky who only continued to glare at the boy genius. "Uh Becky, I think I should head back home," she said as she rubbed her arm with her hand. She had been excited beforehand to show Becky a new book series that she had begun to read and it was right at the same section where Tobey was sitting from them.

Becky turned his eyes over to Violet and looked at her sympathetically. "Are you okay Violet?" she asked as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder who only gave her an immediate nod of her head.

"Yeah," Violet answered, "I will show the series to you some other time." She briefly glanced at the shelves again before looking at her friend once more. "I think they have checked out the books anyway." The blond mustered a smile before giving her a wave, "I'll see you later Becky."

Becky waved back to her friend before clenching her jaw in anger. _The nerve _she thought as she whipped around and marched over to the table where Tobey was. At least he was sitting alone and she wouldn't be interrupting anyone else. The moment she reached the table, she slammed her hands onto the table causing Tobey to jump in his seat.

"Honestly..." Tobey mumbled as he glare up at Becky.

Becky furrowed her eyebrows at him and said, "you have some nerve speaking to Violet like that! How dare you?" Becky wanted to scream at him for what he had said but Ms. Dewey would hush her for being so loud.

"She'll get over it," Tobey responded with a glare, "now please leave me be."

"Not until you apologize to Violet," Becky told him, "you hurt her feelings. You know how much effort she puts in her artwork but to have you speak like that...that's just impolite of you."

"Oh no," Tobey said in a sarcastic tone of voice, "I was being rude to poor Violet. When have I ever been polite to anyone?" he asked her before letting out a sigh and burying his head back into the book.

_There have been some moments _Becky thought and during those moment she had been present for when she was both Becky and WordGirl. She was about to retort when she heard that weary sigh escaping from his lips. He seemed more agitated than usual and if Becky didn't know any better, she knew that something was up with him. She slid the chair from the table and sat down across from him as she still bore that frown upon her eyes.

Tobey looked up in confusion when he saw her sitting across from him. "Can I please read this book in peace? I'm trying to concentrate."

Becky folded her arms across her chest and looked directly at him. "I have seen you check out that book before and you weren't satisfied with it."

"How do you know what I'm satisfied?" he shot back.

"Look," Becky said, trying to keep as much patience as she could at the moment, "I am not here to start bickering with you. Something is bothering you and don't you deny it." _On the bright side, at least he's not going on a robot rampage._

No other person had ever asked Tobey how he felt. He didn't count his teachers, for it was their duty to make sure that their students felt better but someone his age? That was a rare occurrence. He took a deep breath and shut the book before looking up at Becky. "I don't know what I am bothering to tell you all of this," he said to her.

"I have been told that I'm a great listener," the brunette said to him.

That may be true but that wasn't the only reason why Tobey bothered to tell her anything. She may say that she was a great listener and perhaps live up to that title but he could see a friend in her, even though it was never made official between them. They were just acquaintances and with the way that he behaved towards Becky, that's all they were going to be. "Right," he spoke, "do you remember that day when we had that project at school? The one with the family tree?"

"Yeah," Becky said with a nod of her head, "why?"

Tobey stared down at the book once again as if the answer to all of his questions that he had was within that book. "I just had a visitor come to my house earlier today. A man who claimed to be my father."

Becky blinked in surprise at what Tobey had said. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't recall Tobey talking much about his father during that project in class. The only thing that she remembered was Tobey saying that he was named after his father and that was it. "But Tobey," she said, "that's great for you isn't it?"

"I know," Tobey said, "but I just didn't feel that...connection that I would have felt. He hasn't been in my life for years and it makes me wonder what reason he has now after so many years?"

Becky remained silent for a beat. That seemed like a reasonable question to have. If she was in the same situation as Tobey and her birth parents actually came to visit her, she would find herself in the same predicament and wouldn't know whether to remain silent or jump for joy. "Perhaps he has been busy. Didn't your mom say one time to my mom that he was always traveling on business trips?"

"That may be," Tobey said, "but it's a feeble excuse...and after eight years. Eight years! And now he has decided to pay us a visit."

There was a tone of frustration in his voice and Becky truly didn't know how to respond to that. She glanced down at the table for a second before looking up at the boy before her. "Does your mom know?"

Tobey shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he answered her, "but he told me to tell her that he was in town. I don't know where he's staying but..." he placed the tips of his fingers on his temples and rubbed them in a circular motion. "This is giving me an immense headache." He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose to keep the headache at bay but it was just pounding in his head.

"If I were you," Becky said, "I would tell your mother first about him and see what she has to say. I wouldn't trust a stranger, even if they were a family member, without consulting with parents first."

"Oh what a lovely idea," Tobey said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "thank you for that suggestion on something that I already planned on doing."

Becky clenched her jaw once again and frowned. "I was just trying to help, sheesh." With those words, she hopped off the chair and was about to leave him along before she turned around and looked at him. "Just so you're aware, you still owe Violet an apology."

"I will apologize when I see her again...depending on how my mood is," he mumbled the last sentence only to earn another glare from Becky.

_Why does he have to always be so difficult_? Becky thought as she walked away from the table and proceeded over to a different section of the library. However, there was a feeling that she couldn't shake off from the conversation that she had with Tobey. If her own birth parents had randomly shown up at the Botsford's door and claimed to be her birth parents, would Becky be just as hesitant to trust them?

Taking a deep breath, she pulled out a book from the shelf and proceeded to the check out line towards Ms. Dewey with an artificial smile upon her lips.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

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Becky clutched the book tightly in her hands as she proceeded to walk down the sidewalk towards home. There was just too much on her mind at the moment that included events of her defeating Dr. Two-Brains earlier this afternoon, trying to spend some time with Violet, and then Tobey's revelation about his father and the way that he had acted towards her. At first, Becky had been more than willing to listen to what he had to say perhaps even help him try to get through this difficult situation that he was facing but the moment he opened his mouth and spoke to her sarcastically was the last of it.

_Perhaps WordGirl would have had better luck but I am not willing to do that all the time_ Becky thought to herself as she continued down the sidewalk. There was going to be a moment where WordGirl was not going to be there for Tobey all the time and he only needed to cooperate with his peers, especially those who were trying their hardest to be as friendly to him as possible. There was no reason to be too proud of yourself, even though it seemed to her that both Tobey and Victoria Best were fighting for that same spot in school. Such high praise would only lead to narcissism and such a personality was not at all pretty to have. As for Becky, she knew that she was loved both as a citizen and as WordGirl and the fact that she had a rich vocabulary but she never though highly as herself. Well...there was that one moment with Miss Power but she had been a terrible influence upon her.

She opened the door of her home and walked inside to be welcomed by her father cherry voice. "Becky!" he smiled brightly to his daughter as he was busying himself in the kitchen with tonight's dinner whilst Bob and TJ were busy with a board game by the dinner table.

The aroma of the food that was being made was both a combination of sweet and savory and it smelled truly delectable enough to make Becky's mouth water. "Mmm, that smells so good," she said as she walked into the kitchen to see what her father was making.

It was a lovely combination of roast beef, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and a lovely cherry pie. When such food like this was made, there could only be one special occasion. Becky tried to think what the occasion was but she couldn't recall any birthdays coming up within the family anytime soon. Her eyes turned to the right where she noticed a bouquet of roses neatly placed on a vase right beside her brother and Bob. "Is it...your anniversary?" Becky asked her father.

"Yes indeed-y," Tim replied to Becky, causing her to slightly flinch at his made up word. "And I have the whole afternoon planned for the both of us." Such events included dinner at home because Tim knew how much Sally adored a home cooked meal, a couple's message, and later in the evening a date night at the movies.

Becky always found it sweet on how smitten her adoptive parents were with one another. They always tried to make one another happy with the simplest things and as long as that happiness lasted, that's what was the most important to the both of them and the family as well.

_Have my biological parents ever been that way with one another_? the young girl thought. _Wait, why am I thinking about this_? Becky had never before thought as deeply for her biological parents as she did at this point. She had been curious to know whom they were and that was it, but to think about them intensely had never occurred to her before. _How did they look like? What did they like? What did they hate? Why didn't they come looking for me when I was gone? Have they ever loved me? Becky Botsford stop it right now!_

"You okay honey?" Tim's voice broke Becky from her thoughts as he noticed the mixture of frustration in his daughter's face.

Becky felt her cheeks heat as she looked at her father, hating the fact that she was caught thinking deeply about something that her adoptive parents perhaps didn't know she would ever bring into her mind. "Yeah I'm okay," she said with a small smile upon her lips, "I'm just going to lie down for a second."

Bob looked at Becky as she headed up the stairs before following her into the bedroom. A questionable, yet filled with concern, squeak escaped from his lips as he jumped on the bed and looked at Becky. The young girl smiled as she raised her hand and gently stroked her pet upon his head but more questions bore her mind. Had Bob...or better yet, Huggy, ever tried to get in contact with the Lexiconians? If he hadn't even tried, Becky wouldn't blame him for that. They had made Earth their home and she was not planning on leaving it anytime soon. If she wanted to visit Lexicon, there was nothing stopping her from doing so but that feeling of acceptance was something that she couldn't really answer? If she was known to be the missing child of a certain couple, would they see her as part of their race or disregard her because she was just...too human to them?

Another questionable squeak escaped Bob's lips but Becky only disregarded it with a gentle smile. "I'm alright Bob I'm just contemplating."

"Hmm?" Bob raised an eyebrow at her word.

Becky let out a sigh as she directly faced the ceiling. "'Contemplating' is the process of thinking. Trying to find the answer of your thoughts...like who I really am and who my parents are."

It was better to just come out with it to her most trusted friend. It wasn't because Becky didn't trust her parents but she also didn't want to hurt their feelings.

Bob was flabbergasted at the words that had just left his owner's lips and Becky could tell that he didn't know what he was able to say about such a thing. "Don't worry Bob," she said as she turned her eyes to look at him once more, "it was just something that came into my mind after..."

_...Tobey spoke to me about his father._

"...that family tree project we had to do for school." That was also a part of it but not as much of what Tobey had said to her earlier.

Becky slowly shut her eyes and tried to wash away the thoughts that continued to haunt her until...

"HELP!" a distorted voice from the town screamed for help as a familiar laughter was heard, "the Butcher is robbing the bank!"

Becky's eyes snapped open as she let out a gasp and sat up straight in her bed. So much for having some time of relaxation before dinner. "Come on Bob, the Butcher is causing trouble." She took a gentle hold of her sidekick's arm and held two fingers on her chest.

"Word Up!"

* * *

Down by Fair City's bank, the Butcher was causing mayhem by launching meat at both the employees and the citizens that attended the bank. Before the Butcher had jumped into the building to rob it of its money, Theodore McCallister II was there to exchange some of the foreign money that he had with Fair City's currency. However, that money did not make its way to his wallet before the Butcher snatched it out of his hands.

Theodore was ready to put up a fight with the meat man but that only caused a brawl between them only to have Theo end up being locked in place with pastrami. Not only did have fear of the Butcher but the fact that the villain used meat as a superpower was something that he had never seen before. It was frightening yet mesmerizing at the same time.

"I want all of the cash in here," the Butcher demanded to one of the bankers as they began to fill the bag as quickly as they could with the money.

Just then, WordGirl flew straight into the bank with Captain Huggy Face clinging onto her back. "Stop right there Butcher!" she demanded as she pointed to the villain with a red gloved finger.

There was that plucky superhero again that Theodore had seen earlier this afternoon. How did she knew where to be and when? _What an amazing place_! Theodore thought _though not as amazing as being trapped in this bloody pastrami_.

"WordGirl!" the Butcher whipped around as he faced the young super heroine with a frown upon his eyes. "Bout time you got here. Hey, this guy was giving me a tough time!" he pointed directly at Theodore who glared at the Butcher in return.

WordGirl's eye turned over to the trapped citizen but she did a double-take when she thought that she was staring at an older version of Tobey. _No way_ she thought as she could see the resemblance between him and her opponent.

"I beg your pardon sir but you stole my money right out of my hand!" Theodore responded to him before his eyes turned over to WordGirl, "it was only a mere scuffle young lady, I meant no harm to this man." Theodore was not too familiar with the laws of this town. Could citizens get into a fight with the villains or was it the job of the superhero to do so?

"I'm a villain," the Butcher retorted, "that's what we do!"

"And what we superheroes do is throw them in jail," WordGirl said as she hovered slightly higher than she did before and glared at the Butcher, "and we never allow villains to harm Fair City's citizens."

"I'm not a citizen here per se," Theodore spoke up as if he was having a normal conversation with the super heroine before him.

"Where are you from?" WordGirl asked, completely ignoring the fact that the Butcher was there.

The Butcher was not all satisfied of the fact that he was being ignored. _He _was the one robbing the bank and therefore he was itching for a battle with WordGirl this very moment. Not to stand there and watch WordGirl have a conversation with this strange man who claimed to be from England. "H-Hey WordGirl!" the Butcher bellowed causing her to whip around. The meat man held his hands in front of his and yelled, "PASTRAMI ATTACK!"

Just then, Captain Huggy Face jumped in front of WordGirl and opened his mouth where the slices made their way into his mouth and he gulped it all down. "Good job Captain Huggy Face!" WordGirl said to her sidekick as she remained in an alert stance. "Initiate Emergency Plan Number 328."

Upon hearing that, Huggy pounced onto the Butcher's leg and wrapped his arms around him causing the meat man to lose his balance. "Hey!" he exclaimed as his arms flapped in the air before losing his balance and falling to the ground.

Now that they had subdued the villain, WordGirl found herself a rope and immediately tied to Butcher with it. A low growl escaped from the Butcher as he tried to wriggle out of the rope being tied around him but wasn't able to do so. "Now the only place you'll be going is jail," the super heroine said to him with her hands placed on her hips. Soon enough, the police walked into the bank and took the Butcher with them.

After the Butcher was taken away, the citizens cheered for WordGirl's help and she gave them a humble thank you followed by a crisp salute. "Whilst this was exciting and all, I can't seem to get myself out of this...meaty situation," Theodore said as he tried to wriggle himself out but to no avail.

"Oh I can take care of that!" WordGirl perked up as she flew around Theodore, causing a little tornado to allow the pastrami slices to come off him.

"Much better," the man replied as he picked off one last slice of pastrami that was on his shoulder and watched it fall to the ground. "I have never seen a man so barking mad before I thought I was done for."

WordGirl couldn't help but slightly chuckle at the man's use of words. She knew exactly what he meant, she was WordGirl after all but what was also funny was the fact at how dangerous this man made the Butcher out to be. "The only danger the Butcher is towards is the use of words," she told him. "I am WordGirl by the way. Fair City's superhero," she said as she held out her hand, "and this is my sidekick Captain Huggy Face."

"Charmed I'm sure. I'm Theodore McCallister," Theodore replied as he took a hold of her dainty hand and shook it gently. "I must say this is the first time I have been close to a superhero before or ever seen one for that matter."

"I'm just doing my job like any other superhero would for their city," WordGirl said with a gentle smile upon her lips. Though there was something that began to bore in her mind. He just introduced himself as 'Theodore McCallister' and there was one another boy in this whole city that had that same name. "I hope you don't mind me asking but you wouldn't happen to be Tobey's dad would you? Tobey McCallister?"

Theodore was about to reach for his rightful amount of money that the Butcher had stolen from him earlier before his hand hovered in midair. He turned his attention over to WordGirl with a raised eyebrow. "You know my son?" he asked her.

It wasn't that Becky hadn't believed Tobey about his dad being here. He had seemed so bothered by the fact that it was hard not to believe him, especially someone who constantly lied all the time. "I do actually," WordGirl nodded her head, "we've had a couple of..."

She was about to say _showdowns _but she recalled what Tobey had said. He hadn't seen his father in eight years and if WordGirl was to say that he was the city's villain, what image would Theodore have of his own son after learning about that fact. "Interactions," she found the words as she looked at Theodore.

"That's good to know," the man replied as he finally took his money and placed them in his wallet. The moment he opened the wallet his eyes opened wide. "Oh dear," he mumbled as he held out a piece of paper and looked at the address and phone number of the hotel that he was staying in. He had meant to give this to Claire if he had found her home, but since it was Tobey he had been welled up with too much emotion that he had forgotten to give it to him.

"Everything alright Mr. McCallister?" WordGirl asked.

Theodore looked up at the super heroine. He might as well head back over to Claire's residence and hand the piece of paper to Tobey but he was sure enough that Tobey had more than enough interaction with him today. "If you would be so kind," he said to WordGirl, "I don't know when you'll see my son again but if you could give this to him." He held the paper towards WordGirl and she took it in her hands and didn't even glance at it. "It's the address to where I'm staying...and if he or his mother wishes to give me a call."

There was hesitation in his voice. Perhaps there was more to the story than what Tobey had said to her in the library but that was none of her business to know. "I will be sure that he get this Mr. McCallister," WordGirl nodded her head to him.

"Much appreciated," the man said to her with another smile upon his lips. "I bid you farewell young lady," he said to her as he went on his way and over to the hotel that he had made a reservation in.

That was an interesting...interaction if WordGirl would put it that way. She had just informally met Tobey's father and she didn't know what to make of it. What she discovered was that Theodore seemed to be a very nice man, but a small meeting was enough to make her reach a conclusion to whether he actually good. After all, where would Tobey get all of that mischief from?

_I think I'm looking too much into this _WordGirl thought to herself when she felt Huggy grabbing a hold of her head yellow cape and letting out a squeak. "Uh-oh, Mom will be home soon. Word Up!" she yelled and then took off into the skies to head back home.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The afternoon seemed like it was dragging after Tobey spent a good couple of hours at the library. He glanced at the clock on wall and noticed that it was almost five...and his mother was not going to be home until late in the evening. He had not made any progress through the book that he was reading and he felt that he was only staring at just one word through this whole time. His mind had been stuck on one topic and it was difficult for him to avoid it. Letting out a disgruntled sigh, he let the pages of the book fall back to their original places before shutting the cover. Books on robots and engineering usually made him feel at ease but today it seemed that the books had lost their magic touch.

When Becky left after the conversation that they had, his whole scheme of wanting to relax had been ruined. The last he had wanted to talk about with his classmate was about his father and the feelings that he felt towards him. However Becky had been more than willing to listen to what he had to say and, even though Tobey would never admit to it, he appreciated her generosity. To Tobey, Becky was just so easy to speak to and he didn't know why. He would remember the quarrels that they had but also the times when they were friendly to one another.

The boy genius shook his head to clear away any thoughts that haunted his mind. All he wanted to do was either fast forward to the next day or rewind to the same exact moment where he met with his father again. The only thing that Tobey feared was that this man was just a figment of his imagination and he would never see him again. Though, his father had to real! That man that was standing by his property just hours ago was real!

_Then why don't I believe it? Why don't I believe that he isn't real? Was I in a dream_? Tobey thought as he hopped off the chair and headed outside of the library. The warm breeze surrounded him like a hug as he walked back home.

_What would it be like to have a conversation with him? __What will we be able to talk about? __I wonder if he likes robots as opposed to mother? Would he approve of me? Why am I thinking this when I feel he isn't real?_

An headache was beginning to from through all of these thoughts as Tobey walked down the sidewalk, making sure to avoid any of the cracks as he walked by. He tried to think of any memories that he ever had with his father but there were none that he could find. If there was no memory, then there was no father but that didn't explain where Tobey had come from. Why hadn't his mother ever spoken about him? Did she ever speak about his father on one of her conversations with Becky's mother?

Tobey couldn't help but feel a little bit of vexation about that fact. He had every right to know about his father and if this was being kept as a secret from him, Tobey didn't know how to react to that.

A sonic sound suddenly caught his attention as he looked up and noticed that familiar streak of yellow light pass through the skies. Of course it would be none other than WordGirl herself but Tobey was not at all in the mood to whip out his remote and cause destruction towards the city just to get her attention. He did not see it coming when she suddenly stopped right in front of him, giving him quite the fright.

"Oh my goodness..." he breathed out as he placed a hand over his chest after that slight fright, "WordGirl...to what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked her.

Becky still held that grudge of how Tobey treated Violet at the library but she tried to hide that for the time being as WordGirl. While she had been flying back home, she had been thinking how she was going to present the slip of paper towards Tobey. It seemed random to her that she would just give him the slip of paper and take off into this skies without giving him an explanation. Due to the circumstances that she met Mr. McCallister in, she also didn't want to cause Tobey any worry than what he was probably feeling.

"Long time, no see," WordGirl replied. It had been just two weeks ago where she had defeated Tobey and robots from destroying the city again and he was long due for another one of their meetings. In fact, WordGirl was relieved that the city wasn't being destroyed by those gargantuan metal beings that she had gotten used to fighting every week that it felt strange to her when she didn't.

"It has indeed," Tobey replied to her with a nod of his head. "I am sorry to disappoint you but I have no robots with me at the moment Unless-"

"Nope!" WordGirl jumped in as she held out a gloved hand towards him, "I'm gonna stop you there before you continue with that sentence. I came to deliver to message to you from somebody that I happened to meet in the city." She pulled out the slip of paper from her pocket and handed it over to Tobey.

The boy genius took the paper in his hands and he squinted at it. "What is this?" he asked, "this looks like an address with a phone number on it."

_He didn't write his name_? WordGirl thought as she resisted the urge to let out a sigh.

"I don't know whom this is from," Tobey said as he was about to give WordGirl the slip of paper back.

"It's from your dad," WordGirl responded to him.

Tobey blinked upon hearing her words. "What?!" he exclaimed as the slip of paper slipped out of his hands and fell onto the pavement but WordGirl quickly caught it before the breeze blew it away from them. "How did you...where did you meet him?"

"Uh," WordGirl began as she tried to decided whether she ought to tell Tobey the truth or just make up a wild tale about how she met him. She knew that both Tobey and the Butcher were part of Fair City's Villain Convention and one of the rules was that no villain had the right to harm any of the fellow villains family members. However, the Butcher did not know whom that man was, but yet she didn't want to risk it. Tobey's temper was unpredictable sometimes and that would mean great destruction to the city.

"You know what?" Tobey interrupted her, not even thinking about asking her how she even knew about his father, "it doesn't matter. You can give that paper right back to him. I don't wish to see him." The moment he uttered such words, he wanted to take them back but he just felt no feeling for this man. He walked past WordGirl until her words suddenly stopped him in his tracks.

WordGirl blinked upon those words. "Tobey," she said in a gentle tone, "why not?"

Tobey froze in place and slowly turned around to look at the super heroine. "Why should I?" he asked her, "how do I know if he really is my father? Wait, why am I even speaking to you about this?"

"Because I happen to be great listener," WordGirl replied to him.

_Huh_? Tobey thought when he had heard those same exact words hours ago. _That's exactly what that Becky Botsford would say!_

The mere silence that surrounded them was suddenly broken by WordGirl's voice. "I think you should give him a chance," she suggested, "I mean, he has come all this way just to meet you."

_After eight years!_ Tobey wanted to yell towards her but kept his anger at ease. "Just because he wants to meet me doesn't mean that I share any mutual feelings." _Then why did you have such thoughts about wanting to get to know him_?

WordGirl on the other hand did not want to spend her whole afternoon fighting back and forth with Tobey. She had been on her way home when she had spotted him walking down the street and she felt it necessary to hand him the slip of paper as soon as she could. "I really need to get going Tobey," the super heroine said. She took his hand in hers and put the slip of paper in the palm of his hand, "just give it some thought."

Just like that, she disappeared from his sight and into the skies. Tobey turned around as his eyes followed the streak of yellow light but he was then distracted by the paper in his hands. He gently bit his lip as he looked at the words on the piece of paper. This just had to be evident enough that Tobey hadn't been imaging the whole thing. He _had _to be real.

A part of him wanted to rip that paper to shreds and let the breeze blow it away a great distance away from him but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

_Just give it some thought. _

Her words echoed through his mind before he lowered the piece of paper within the pocket of his pants and continued on his way home.


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Work always consumed the majority of Claire's time. Being a career woman and working hard to get herself to the position that she had now was something that she couldn't change in the near future. She had been used to working long hours ever since she had moved to Fair City to better her life with her son, Tobey. A part of her felt remorseful that she couldn't take a time of her day to spend with her son on the weekdays, but she tried to make as much time as she could for him on the weekends. However, those weekends had only been spent when he was grounded for his mischievous behavior and that was an obstacle that didn't allow her to do something fun with him. It was difficult having to rise her son on her own especially when her son was someone who destroyed the city with his robots, but Claire felt that she was doing the best that she could so. At times, she wished that her son was just as angelic as Becky Botsford was. Indeed both Sally and Claire did speak of their children's triumphs, especially when they wanted to set up a playdate with them. However, every child was different and Tobey had been missing a parent in his life for the past eight years. Claire didn't want to put the blame on having Tobet being fatherless, but she knew that was also one of the issues that he suffered from. She couldn't look after Tobey all the time, due to the hurdles of work, and when she did she was pulling him by the ear back home.

Divorce had been a very difficult situation for both her and her husband, but she just couldn't seem to keep up with her husband's aspirations. When they were married, Theodore continued his education in robots and engineering but when he finished and found a job, they always seemed to move wherever Theodore's job was. All of that constant relocation was something that Claire couldn't keep up with and she knew that she had to do something for the better of herself and their unborn child at the time. Two years later, there was still constant relocation and that was the moment that Claire came to the conclusion that she had to do something, which was either remain where they were or leave. A fight had broken out between them when Claire voiced her thoughts to her husband, up to the point where those arguments became constant. She came to the conclusion was for her to let Theodore go on his robotic shenanigans and for herself to find a better life for herself and her son. Moving to Fair City had been difficult for both her and her son but after sometime, she had put all the past behind her that she would forget about her old life and settle in with her new life. Before, there never went a day by where she didn't think about Theodore but after throwing herself into work for so many years, there was just no time to think about anyone else but work.

A fatigued sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the clock on the wall. Eight o'clock and night and she was almost finished with her work. There had been no distractions or calls about her son's mischievous whereabouts so she was able to finish a bit earlier than she had expected.

* * *

Dinner at the Botsfords had been quite the whimsical event for Becky and her brother, TJ. Since their parents were celebrating their anniversary, the two swapped stories with one another that Becky had never heard before. She couldn't help but find how romantic it was at how they were high school sweethearts. It was amazing how long a relationship lasted and how happy they were with one another.

After her parents left for their little date night that Tim had planned, Becky had herself cooped up in her bedroom to finish her homework. The one thing she was glad about was that there was no Art homework that she needed to accomplish. She was better at the other subjects but when it came to art, she didn't share the same level of proficiency that Violet had. The current homework that she was working on was science and it was about the planets of the solar system. Becky had been a couple of times outside of Earth's spectrum but settling on a planet and exploring it was something that she had not done before. She took the book that she had checked out of the library earlier and flipped open the pages. It was an easy assignment that involved describing the characteristic of the planets and why were they named the way they were. A little bit of science and history involved in the assignment.

Becky felt the texture of the paper passing by her fingers as her eyes quickly scanned through the words to find the proper details. Suddenly, her eyes stopped at one specific work that stood out to her.

_Lexicon_.

* * *

"Tobey!"

Tobey looked up from his desk when his mother called his name. She was finally home...and it was very late. The young boy jumped off his chair and headed down the stairs to greet his mother, though he felt a bit nervous doing so. How was he to tell her that they had a visitor at their home, and one who claimed to be his father?

_The moment of truth _he thought as he finally approached his mother and greeted her with a small smile. She looked exhausted through all of those long hours at work and sometimes Tobey didn't understand why she had to be away for so long. Work was important, just like school was to him even though he didn't enjoy being taught at such an elementary level, but this work situation was getting to be too much that he barely even saw his mother.

"Mother," he greeted her with a nod of his head and a slight smile upon his lips.

_Just come out with it, she's going to find out eventually and when she does, she'll probably be vexed by it. _Tobey debated with himself before he reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the slip of paper.

His mother hung her coat on the coat rack and looked over at her son. She was about to approach him for a hug until she noticed the slip of paper in his hands. "What is this?" she asked him as she took it in her hands and looked at it.

"There was a visitor here earlier who wanted to see you," Tobey began to explain the whole event to her before he reached the conclusion, "and he told me that he was my father...and that he wanted to meet with me."

His mother stared at him in astonishment at the whole tale that Tobey revealed to her. The one thing that she couldn't understand was the nerve that Theodore had to show himself after eight long years. The way that Tobey described how this man looked like was evident enough to Claire that it was indeed her ex-husband that had shown up at their doorstep.

"And mother," Tobey spoke again as he looked at her. He knew how difficult this might be for her to do it, but he wanted to get to know this man as much as he could. "I would like to see him again. Meet with him."

Was it a mere coincidence that Claire had been thinking a bit of her past life at work and this had happened earlier to Tobey? Her son had enough deprivation from having a father figure around him and if she were to continue this any longer, it would be all of her fault if Tobey never got the chance to see his father again. She glanced down at the slip of paper in her hands again before looking up at Tobey. Eight years without him were eight years without any disappointments...and Theodore had greatly let her down during the time they were together.

She didn't want for her son to suffer the same but eight years could really change a person and she hoped that her ex-husband had changed. "I have to give this some thought," she finally spoke.

Tobey breathed in through his nose towards his mother's response. A sentence like that was evident enough that the answer would be a 'no.' "I do hope it's possible," he said to her, letting the thoughts that he had earlier haunt him once again. He didn't want to sound stern towards his mother but he just couldn't keep those emotions away. With those last words, he headed up towards his bedroom and shut the door.


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The next morning, Becky barely opened her eyes from the lack of sleep that she had suffered through. She had tossed and turned all night, dreaming of her home planet which was something that she never dreamed about before. She had managed to finish her science assignment from last night but ever since she saw the word _Lexicon _within the book that she was reading, it had piqued her curiosity even more. Bob had tried to pry the book off her hands but being the strong one that she was, she had won that slight game of tug and war and read the book within her bed covers through the night. She didn't know what time she had shut her eyes to go to sleep but due to her current condition, she felt that she had gotten less than eight hours.

The super heroine flung the covers off herself and groggily headed over to the bathroom to freshen up and join her family for breakfast before school. Just a couple more months and it would be summer vacation and soon enough, the start of sixth grade. "Good morning guys," Becky smiled to her family as she made her way to the breakfast table and was welcomed by the sight of sunny side eggs and bacon.

"Morning," Sally and Tim sang in unison as they greeted their daughter. "You're looking rather tired hon," Sally voiced her concern when she noticed her daughter's exhausted state.

Becky could tell her mother the truth about her curiosity about her home planet. After all, her parents knew her secret but it would be a rather awkward conversation to have. _Yeah, I was just awake last night reading about my home planet and wanting to learn more about my own parents_. She didn't want to hurt her parents' feelings about that. "Too much homework that I had to do," Becky said as she rubbed her eyes. At least there was some half-truth in that sentence.

* * *

Tobey was in a daze when he got ready to go to school. He had stayed awake all night thinking about the events of his father and the conversation with her mother that he didn't know when he fell asleep. When he made his way downstairs he was met with a silent atmosphere, which was evident to him that his mother had already left early for work. At least she had found the time to leave some breakfast for him and a bag for lunch. However, Tobey didn't feel hungry so he took the lunch bag and headed out of the house.

He took a deep breath and felt the warm breeze around him. The sun was brightly shining and there was not a single cloud in the sky. Tobey would have felt at least optimistic if it weren't for the thoughts that were clouding his mind. He stood by his mailbox and waited for the school bus but there was an impatience within him that he didn't even want to do it. He didn't want to spend six and a half hours at school when all he wanted to do was meet his father. If he chose to play hooky, then he would be in great trouble so he knew that he was in a bit of predicament. It wasn't the fact that Tobey wasn't willing to do it but due to the conversation that he had with his mother last night and her reaction towards her ex's appearance, Tobey didn't want to ruin the chance that he had.

The school bus finally pulled up on his property and he entered inside the boisterous vehicle. He glanced over at the familiar faces that he had in his class and one of them was Violet Heaslip, who was sitting with Becky and quickly averted her eyes from him towards the window of the bus. Tobey rolled his eyes at her reaction, seeing that she was still not over the insult that he said to her yesterday. He had no time to deal with that for he had other things that he needed to worry about.

Becky was not at all surprised when Tobey passed by their row of seats and sat at the back of the bus. Her main concern was Violet's feelings and how she reacted towards Tobey. "I'll go and talk to him," Becky offered but was halted in her mission when Violet took her hand.

"It's okay Becky," Violet said to her with a small smile, "I'm not expecting an apology whatsoever. In fact, I shouldn't even care about what he had said to me that day at the library. I'm just sorry that ran out on you like that."

At least Becky was assured that her friend would be fine, but that wasn't something that she was going to let Tobey get away with. "I'm glad to hear that Violet," the brunette responded to her and took her seat next to her friend once more. She was going to deal with Tobey later when she had the chance. Hopefully recess would be a quiet one where no villains decided to cause any mischief.

* * *

Theodore McCallister sat in front of a table with a set of blue prints resting in front of him. Just because he was away from his residence, didn't mean that he would take a vacation from his work. Building robots was a great passion of his and he wanted to at least develop his own brand of robots. After finishing college in only his general studies and wanting to find himself on what he wanted to achieve, he had finally pursued a Masters and later on a PhD in Robotics and Engineering. It had been a long road of studies and sacrifices, one that he wasn't too proud of, to achieve his goal. Now that he had at least some stability, he had finally found some time to get in contact with his family. Well...he didn't know whether he would consider Claire family anymore since their divorce but there was that visible and invisible force that bound them together.

Tobey.

Theodore took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes to wear off the tiredness that lingered within them. The longer he stared at those blueprints and formulas, the less accomplishments he was going to succeed. He needed some fresh air at least and it seemed like a good day for one. As he was about to put on his shoes and head out, the telephone rang. That was the first time it had rung ever since Theodore arrived yesterday. He was hoping for a ring yesterday but to no avail.

"Hello?" Theodore said in the receiver, "Theodore McCallister speaking." Why not be courteous and let the hotel employee know whom he was rather than to keep them guessing.

"Mr. McCallister," the hotel employee answered on the other end of the phone, "there is a visitor here to see you."

Well that was quite the surprise for the man, but a visitation was better than a five minute phone call. "Thank you kindly," he said, "I shall be down shortly." He placed the receiver back on the phone and took a deep breath. The first person that crossed his mind was Tobey, but he wouldn't walk all the way to the hotel by himself would he? After the whole events of yesterday with Dr. Two-Brains and the Butcher, Theodore had grown rather worried about this whole town.

Other than the villains, it was a rather charming city he had to admit. Taking another deep breath he headed towards the lobby and his shoes suddenly squeaked to a halt when he noticed whom his visitor was. "Goodness," he whispered to himself before swallowing.

The palms of his hands felt sweaty but he quickly wiped them on the sleeves of his shirt before he walked forward. He cleared his throat and right then and there, his visitor turned around and it was none other than his ex-wife. She had changed very much through these past eight years and it was no surprise towards Theodore. She had always been a woman who spoke her mind and wanted to pursue what she desired the most and seeing her in a prim and proper business outfit, it was evident enough to the man that she had gotten just as far in life as he had.

A slight smile appeared on Claire's lips at the sight of her ex-husband. "Theodore," she said as she took in his appearance for the first time in all these eight years, "its good to see you."

Were these words true that she had just said or did she just say them to be respectful? That was something that Theodore had yet to determine. "It's good to see you too," he replied with a nod of his head followed by a gentle smile. "This is...quite the surprise actually. I was only expecting a phone call."

"I would have called," the woman said, "but I was just on my way to work and thought of dropping by. Tobey did tell me that you were in Fair City. How long will you be staying?"

_As long as I can spend some time with my son_ Theodore wanted to say but he knew that he had to work his way through that. "Only a couple of weeks," he said to her. Truth was, he could work from any location that he chose just as long as he got his work done. "Though I do have to head back to England for a conference afterwards."

_Always the worker _Claire thought, though she was also guilty of that as well. "I understand," she replied before glancing at the clock. She had just enough time to head to work without delay. Being late was one of the things that she detested and she knew that she had a lot of work to do again. "I do need to head to work soon-" she was about to say when Theodore interrupted her, causing her to give him a slight glare.

"Fancy a cup of coffee during lunch?" he asked her.

The glare then softened at his offer, though she still didn't appreciate the interruption. "I would like that," she said to him with a nod of her head. "I shall see you at the DA building at say...a quarter to twelve?"

"Perfect," Theodore agreed. "I look forward to...catching up after all this time."

"I am sure that we will have plenty to speak about," the blond woman replied before she said her goodbyes with her ex and headed out of the hotel building. She may have had a calm demeanor about, but within she was just as nervous as Theodore was.


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Claire McCallister checked her watch every few minutes whilst tapping her shoe impatiently on the ground. It was almost twelve and Theodore was nowhere to be seen. This was one of the many things that Claire detested when it came to meetings with others. It was better to be prompt than late and she had a client that she had an appointment with at twelve thirty. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she folded her arms across her chest and began to pace back and forth. _Unbelievable_ she thought but it wasn't long before she noticed Theodore jogging over to her.

"Whew," he breathed out and supported his weight on the wall with one hand. "Sorry I'm late. I just needed to figure out the torque of my robot's arm."

_You have always been late to anything _Claire wanted to remind him but why turn this meeting into a rehash of their past? It was the present that they needed to focus on and Claire wanted to accomplish as much as she could in this one meeting in a matter of minutes. "I assume that's radius times force times the sine of theta?" Claire asked as her lips tipped into a slight smile.

Theodore's eyes brightened when she said that. "You remembered?" he asked her.

Claire casually shrugged her shoulders. "I have learned a few things after living with a man for eight years and his construction for robots." She glanced at her watch once again before nodding her head. "Right, shall we have that coffee then? I have to head back to work soon."

With those words, Theodore gave his ex-wife a nod of his head before proceeding to follow her. He felt the palms of his hands beginning to sweat after being in such close proximity with her. Nervousness? Past memories? He didn't know how to explain these tumultuous emotions but he was not surprised. After not seeing someone for eight years, things were bound to be a little unwieldy.

* * *

School could not have been more of a hassle for Tobey McCallister. To him, it was bad enough that he had to spend six full hours with a group of students whom he considered were not in the intelligence status that he was, with the exception of some. He couldn't take another minute of the teacher's voice droning as she wrote on the chalkboard about today's lesson. He took a quick glance at the clock and noticed that there was only ten more minutes left before lunchtime and his one wish was to just skip it and go looking for his father. He knew that it might be a feeble attempt to do so. He had just given his mother the piece of paper that WordGirl gave him just last night and he didn't know what his mother had with it.

Speaking of which, Tobey couldn't help but feel some disappointment towards his mother. He didn't know why he was feeling that sort of emotion. He shouldn't feel disappointment towards someone who had done her best to raise him all these years, but he just couldn't comprehend why she had never said anything about his father to him. Instead, he had only believed that his father had not existed. Just that thought was enough to cause him to clench the pencil tightly within his grip and allow the lead tip to break upon the paper that he was writing on.

That small snap from the pencil caused Becky Botsford to snap out of her deep thoughts. In actuality, if she didn't have super hearing she would have still been in her dazed state. Slowly, she glanced down at her desk and noticed that she had written nothing on the blank sheet of paper of her notebook. _Oh no_ Becky thought as she leaned forward and hide her eyes behind the palms of her hands. Why out of all the days, or why ever, did she lose her focus? There was only one reason for this and Becky knew! It was that book about Lexicon that she had stayed up all night reading, and there was more that she felt the need to discover. Just last night, she had read about the composition of the planet but the people that inhabited it, she had more to read on that.

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiing!_

"Okay class!" Ms. Davis announced before her students got up to leave for lunch. "After lunch we have our solar system presentations. I look forward to see what you have found."

Tobey halted in his tracks the moment that Ms. Davis said that. How could he have forgotten about that assignment?! His mind had been so warped up in yesterday's events that he hadn't given his homework any other thought!

_No, no! This can be settled easily _the boy genius thought as he took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. He had his robots to take care of that issue and he was going to do that during recess.

* * *

Theodore tapped his finger against the warm cup of coffee as he awaited for Claire...or even himself to start the conversation. Ever since they had sat down and their drinks had arrived, there was nothing but silence that had taken over their conversation, and the trouble was that none of the two adults knew how to even begin. Theodore had a lot of time on his hands for the time being, but he was aware that Claire didn't have that luxury in her hands. She had to get back to work in a matter of minutes and he had already caused a slight delay in their meeting.

"I will make this blunt as possible," Claire suddenly spoke up, much to Theodore's relief. "I understand that the reason why you have come is to spend time with Tobey. I am a little hesitant but I have been flexible with my decision."

_Why the hesitation_? Theodore wanted to ask. Tobey was his son and Theodore was his father after all. Though he tried to reason with himself as much as he could when he heard Claire's words. He had to understand her reasoning behind that. After not being in his son's life for eight years, of course his ex-wife was going to be hesitant about it. How would Theodore act with Tobey? What would they talk about? Would they respect one another? When Claire mentioned that she would be flexible with her decision, it was like a weight had been lifted off the man's shoulders.

"And what decision was that?" Theodore asked her.

"At first, I wanted to refuse your offer. Why would I let someone be with my son when he doesn't know who he is?" Claire said and such words were enough to cause Theodore's stomach to flip, though he tried to keep those emotions at bay. Claire was the type of woman who never embellished her words but spoke them as she thought. It was rather admirable in a way, but at this moment, there was nothing great about it.

"A bit harsh I must say," Theodore said.

"I am true to my words," Claire spoke up and before Theodore had another chance to speak, she jumped right in and said, "but Tobey does need a father figure in his life and I am more than able to let you see him."

_Oh thank __heavens _Theodore thought to himself as he clutched the cup of coffee in his hands and let the warmth seep into his skin.

"But the question remains what should we do when you have to travel?" Claire looked at him.

"I can take him with me during the summer," Theodore suggested.

"Really Theodore?" Claire asked him. "I don't know how often you travel nor what your work entails but I don't believe that is healthy for Tobey. He needs stability. That's why he and I came to Fair City in the first place."

Theodore let a puff of air escape from his lips. "You're speaking like he's a problematic child."

_You don't know the _half _of it_ Claire wanted to say though even she didn't want to believe that Tobey was a problematic child. He just had...different ways of expressing himself and that involved robots. Though if anyone else was to call her son a problematic child, they would have to deal with her first. "No, of course not," Claire responded, "he is just..."

How else was she to describe her son without making it sound like he was a problem? No he was not a problem and she didn't want to believe it!

"He is just vulnerable," she said with a sniff as she looked towards her ex-husband. Tobey may not show his vulnerability, but it was there and a mother could always tell by that. "I do not want to see him hurt."

"Claire," Theodore said as he leaned forward and looked at her, "he is my son. I would never do anything to hurt him. I just want to get to know him better. Be a part of his life that I have missed from the last eight years. I know what I had done was wrong. I pushed you and him away to pursue to dream."

_Not to mention you were rather selfish along the way_ Claire thought.

"But doing so, I missed out on everything as he was growing up and I want to be there more for him now than ever. Back then, I just didn't realize what was more important," Theodore finished before he glanced over at the clock that was on the wall. "I suppose you have to head back to work soon. I will not take much of your time Claire, but please, I hope we can both reach an agreement for the better of Tobey."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out an amount of cash before laying it on the table.

"You know where to find me dear," he said with a smile, "coffee is on me."

Generosity.

One of the many characteristics that Theodore had, but not eight years ago.


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Tobey held a stack of blank papers in his hands and immediately walked over to the back of the school building. He knew that this would be a risky situation but he was not going to start on getting behind his homework. The last thing that he needed was another parent-teacher meeting about his schoolwork, especially after how he was feeling throughout the time when he had met his 'father.'

Pressing a button on his remote, the gargantuan robot leaned down and looked at Tobey with a stoic expression upon its features. This robot had less expressions than Artsy did but at least he got the job finished. "Take these quickly and hurry it up," Tobey said to the robot as he placed the stack of papers in the robot's mouth for the school project. If only he had bough Artsy with him to school, he would have at least prepared a diorama on the planets that they had learned about. The moment that the stack of papers entered the robot's mouth, its eyes began to flash red as it began to pour all of knowledge that Tobey had installed into it onto the blank sheets of paper. After a good few minutes, the robot opened its mouth and Tobey took the papers in his hands.

"Perfect," the boy genius stated, "now run along. I shall meet you after school." Turning around to head back to the playground, Tobey almost jumped out of his skin when he noticed his classmate, Becky Botsford, leaning against the wall. "Becky!" he exclaimed, almost dropping the papers from his hands, "how long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to see your robot doing your homework for you," Becky answered as she crossed her arms and held a scowl within her eyes, "seems like someone forgot to do his homework."

Tobey tried to restrain the nerve that was threatening to unleash itself upon the young girl. The last thing he needed was a lecture from someone that he considered an equal match in knowledge. "I have my reasons why," Tobey simply stated, "as a matter of fact, it is not considered cheating if that's what you intended, for I have installed all of my knowledge in this robot."

"It still doesn't excuse the fact that _you _didn't do your homework," Becky said.

"Don't think that I would do something like this on a regular basis Botsford, it was for an emergency. If you have gone through what I have, then you might understand," he clenched tightly onto the papers in his arms as he if was keeping a hold of something special.

The moment that he said those words, Becky thought of the conversation that they had in the library and she knew what he had meant by that. She uncrossed her arms and let them fall to her sides as she continued to look at Tobey. She may have not gone through the same situation as Tobey had, but she at least could understand what he was feeling. "I am not apathetic Tobey," the brunette said to him.

"Oh really?" Tobey said.

Becky blinked at his words. "Yes, I am the opposite of that actually. On the contrary, I can understand what you're going through," she paused as she looked down at the stack of papers on his arms once more, "but still, you cannot use your robots to cheat on your homework."

Tobey closed his eyes in exasperation and let out a sigh. "What are you going to do? Tell Ms. Davis on me?" he asked her with a glare upon his eyes.

Becky rolled her eyes to the sky, taking his suggestion into consideration. She could do the right thing and tell Ms. Davis about it, or she could face the consequences of that and be called a 'Snitch' by Tobey. That word had become rather infamous within the school, but Becky personally thought there were better words than that. 'Canary' was a clever one and better sounding than a word like 'snitch.'

"I could," Becky spoke, "but I won't. In fact, I would like to negotiate on that."

Tobey could see a sparkle in her brown eyes then moment she used that word. He blinked as he instinctively took a step back from her when she said such a word. "Negotiate?" he echoed.

Becky nodded her head. "Negotiate means to-"

"Come into terms of agreement with someone concerning a certain situation. I am well aware what 'negotiate' means," Tobey interrupted. He did not like how this conversation was going to end between him and Becky. In fact, he rarely negotiated with anyone let alone the girl standing right in front of him. Looking that the expression that she beheld, he felt that he had no choice. "What is it?"

"You're going to apologize to Violet," Becky said.

"I beg your pardon?" Tobey blinked.

"I'm sure you clearly heard what I said," Becky said to him, "did you think I was going to let something like that go? Especially when my best friend's feelings were hurt by you?"

Tobey clenched his jaw when Becky reminded him of that moment. "Are you being serious Becky?" he asked her, "I am sure that she got over that."

Even though it might seem that Violet had gotten over Tobey's attitude, Becky knew that deep down she was still not happy about the way that Tobey had spoken to her. "It's either this, or Ms. Davis finding out about your homework."

"No other alternative?" Tobey asked but all he got in response was a shake of her head. Letting out another sigh, Tobey felt his shoulders fall as he walked past Becky. "Fine, I'll go and apologize to her...but this will be the first and the last favor."

A smirk came upon Becky's lips as she followed alongside Tobey. "Violet and Scoops and should be right over..." her eyes looked around the playground before she spotted her best friend sitting with Scoops by a tree, "right over there."

"I can see that," Tobey muttered as he walked forward and approached Violet and Scoops.

Violet giggled at what Scoops was telling her before she opened her eyes and looked over and saw Tobey and Becky. "Hi Becky...oh," her smile faltered the moment she saw that Tobey was with her, "hi Tobey."

_Hmph _Tobey thought. _So she's still __grieving over what I said_. It took all of his will to not roll his eyes at the blond but now that the opportunity had come, he just wanted to get it over with.

"Violet," Becky spoke up as she glanced over at Tobey, "Tobey wanted to talk to you. Right Tobey?" she sternly said and elbowed him with her arm.

"Ow," he whispered as he clenched the arm that Becky had just elbowed. "Not so hard," he glared at Becky who mirrored the same glare that he had. "Indeed," he said as he looked at Violet and cleared his throat. "I came here to apologize for my behavior at the library yesterday. It was uncalled for. I am sorry."

Violet blinked before a small smile came upon her lips. She had not expected any sort of apology from Tobey, but it was kind of him to do so. "Thank you Tobey," she said to him with a whisper. "Apology accepted."

"Happy now?" Tobey said as he faced Becky with a glare before walking away from the group.

_At least it was nice while it lasted_ Becky thought to herself and joined her friends by the tree. "What's the matter with him?" Scoops asked as he looked at Violet and Becky with a perplexed expression. "Did he say anything to you Violet?"

Becky was about to respond to him but Violet beat her right to it. "Oh it's nothing to worry about," Violet answered as she waved her hand in the air. "It was just a small disagreement between Tobey and me."

"I wouldn't call it a 'disagreement' but," Becky chimed in, "it was something that he shouldn't have said. Anyway," she quickly added before the three of them got too deep into the conversation about Tobey. "I am curious to hear about everyone's presentation on the solar system."

"Right," Scoops said, "it shows how much there is out there. Now I don't know whether I should be a reporter or an astronaut. Wait a minute!" Scoops brightened as he clung tightly onto his notepad and took the pencil that was neatly tucked behind his ear, "I could be both. Bringing extraterrestrial news to Earth."

Both girls dissolved into laughter before Scoops joined them in. "What about the Daily Rag?" Violet asked.

"Not to worry," Scoops said, "if I could work for one newspaper, I could also work for the Daily Rag. This is where I first started and I will be here until the very end of it."

"And what would we do without the announcement of the school activities that go on, or the lunches," Becky said with a smile upon her lips.

Suddenly, their conversation came to an end as the bell rang to indicate and end to recess. "Let's go guys," Scoops said as he got up from the grass, swiped his hands together, and the three of them headed back into the school building for their presentations.


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own WordGirl**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Tobey had never felt intimidated by a bunch of presentations. Even he had to admit that the dioramas that his classmates had made were nicely done, though he never would admit that out loud. Even Ms. seemed engaged on the projects that her students had done. As for Tobey, how was he going to impress his classmates by just reading off from a stack of papers? His eyes scanned around the room until they landed on Becky Botsford. Looks like she was the only one from the class whom had not done a diorama like the others. That put the boy's mind at ease for he wasn't the only one who hadn't done it.

"Excellent work Victoria," Ms. Davis smiled as her student picked the diorama and walked back to her desk. "And I must say, where did you find the time to make sixty-two moons for Saturn?"

Victoria Best flipped one of her braids over her shoulders and held a proud smile upon her lips. "Because I am the best at finding time Ms. Davis."

It took all of the teacher's will to not roll her eyes at her student. She had heard that phrase one too many times during the year that even she was getting annoyed by it. However, she was not going to lose her temper towards something, which she deemed to be so small for the time being. "Of course," she complied to Victoria with a nod of her head before her eyes landed in front of the classroom. "Who would like to go next?" she asked and Becky's arm shot up in the air. "Becky, come on up!"

Becky held onto her stacks of paper and made her way to the front of the classroom and faced her classmates. She wasn't usually nervous but if she had paid more attention to the planet that she was assigned, she wouldn't be feeling this way. Then again, she had learned so much about her home planet that she didn't know of before. At first, the only hint she had by her home planet was the term _lexicon_, another word for dictionary. So did that mean that people in her home planet knew complicated words like she did? Did she inherit her parents' knowledge?

"Whenever you're ready to start Becky," Ms. Davis broke her out of her thoughts.

_Okay _Becky thought to herself _just go ahead an do it_. She bought the paper in front of her eyes and began to read off the planet that she had been assigned, Mercury. As she was reading her findings on Mercury, she felt as if a part of her had left Earth and was traveling over in space. She flew past Mercury and all other planets that she came upon one planet with two rings weaved around it and a red star stamped in the middle of it. Her home. _Keep it together Becky, you're almost there_ she told herself as she finally made it through the last sentence of her paper. "And lastly, if any of the other planets wanted race with Mercury, they would most likely lose because Mercury orbits the Sun faster than any of the other planets."

Ms. Davis continued to smile when Becky finished her paper. "Excellent," she said as she got up from her chair and walked in front of the classroom once more. "Would you happen to know the speed of Mercury when it orbits the sun?"

Such a fact did not make it's way in Becky's memory when Ms. Davis asked such a question. The whole classroom was quiet and Becky quickly searched through her paper to make sure that she had the answer hidden somewhere in her pages. There were no words that would answer the question that her teacher had just inquired, though there was only one planet that came to her mind and it wasn't Mercury. "Uh..." Becky said as her eyes searched around the classroom for an answer.

Becky could see a smirk forming on Victoria's lips while the rest of the class stared at her expectantly for the answer. _If I had been paying more attention to my actual planet for my project, this wouldn't be happening right now._ There were moments where Becky didn't know the answers to everything, but this was something that she should have known the answer to.

She looked up from her paper once more and her eyes fell on Tobey who held one finger, then two fingers twice, followed by three zeros. "One hundred twelve thousand miles per hour," Becky finally managed to find the answer after what Tobey had tried to say to her with his fingers.

"Excellent," Ms. Davis smiled brightly at Becky, "that would be quite the galactic race wouldn't it? Thank you Becky."

The young girl smiled as she headed back to her seat, though there was one question that arose in her mind. Why did Tobey just help her out all of a sudden? She looked over at him but he only stared straight at the classroom with a smirk upon his lips. A smirk that Becky couldn't comprehend what it meant.

"And for our last presentation, Tobey," Ms. Davis called as Tobey got up from his seat and stood in front of the class. Becky took notice that just like she, he had only written a report. Then again, she had caught his robot doing the paper for him.

"I know that we had to select one planet but I was intrigued in the whole solar system," Tobey said as his eyes went down on the paper that his robot had written. His robot had gone above and beyond as to what the solar system was composed of. The planet, moons, meteorites, and many more.

As time wore on towards Tobey's presentation, Ms. Davis could feel herself beginning to doze off, though she quickly regained her composure and looking at Tobey as he began to speak about the complexity of the planets and what they were composed of. As interesting as that sounded, time wouldn't allow for more information for it was almost time to dismiss her students from today's lessons. "I am sorry to interrupt you Tobey, but it seems that we will be running out of time."

"But I haven't gotten to the..." Tobey quickly looked over through his report, "how the stars are named and the relation between the zodiac signs and the stars and-"

"I am sorry for the disappointment Tobey, but I will be more than happy to read about them. It's almost time for dismissal," Ms. Davis interrupted him. Tobey frowned and placed his report on her desk before going over to his desk.

_Just as long as I achieve the highest grade in this class _he thought to himself, hating the fact that he had been interrupted.

Suddenly, the bell rang and the students happily left the classroom and gathered in the hallway for their belongings. Tobey made his way to his locker to get his belongings and the moment he closed the locker, Becky stood right next to him. "Oh!" Tobey almost jumped from the slight fright, "what is it Botsford?"

Becky frowned at his attitude but thought no more of it at the moment. "Don't think I didn't catch you giving me the answer about Mercury," she said to him.

"Well of course, I could see you looking at me," Tobey said to her.

"Why?" Becky asked him, "why did you want to help me?"

Tobey shrugged his shoulders and held onto the books against his chest. "Call it a 'thank you,'" he said to her, "you didn't tell Ms. Davis on what I did with my report and I had to...or rather felt the need to thank you in some way."

Where was all of this generosity coming from? Tobey, out of all the people, was thanking her. "Well that's nice of you Tobey."

"And don't think I would do it on a regular basis," Tobey said.

_And there it goes _Becky thought and rolled her eyes at his comment. She took a deep breath and lowered her eyes on the floor. "Whatever Tobey," she said as she then walked past him and proceeded to the exit of the school's building. "See you tomorrow."

Tobey stared after her as she walked down the hallway. He didn't know what it was but Becky had seemed rather unhappy as of late. There had been no smart remarks coming from her whenever they had a debacle as of late and Tobey wondered why that was. "Wait!" he exclaimed and then caught up with Becky who halted in her steps and turned around to face him.

"What?" Becky answered him, an slight irritation in her voice.

Tobey was about to comment on her voice but bit his tongue from doing so. "Would you...mind if I could accompany you home?"

Becky was caught off guard by his offer. She couldn't help but think that there was some sort of motive behind that but in any case, there was no one that Becky could walk home with. Bob had not come to school and both Violet and Scoops had extracurricular activities that they had to stay after for. "Sure Tobey," Becky said with a nod of her head, "that would be very nice." _And thoughtful _she thought before the two of them proceeded to walk out of the school building.


End file.
